RasPiO GPIO Zero Ruler

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, raspberry pi  No Responses »
Jul 212016
 
RasPiO GPIO Zero Ruler

You may remember this time last year I KickStarted a 6-inch ruler with the most important RPi.GPIO code on it. I’ve been using it myself an awful lot in the last year when coding. So it won’t surprise you to learn that I’m now doing another one for GPIO Zero. Since GPIO Zero is about the easiest way imaginable to get into Python GPIO tinkering, I think this will be really helpful for people. I’ve already been using the prototypes and find them an extremely helpful reference. Here’s what it looks like… It’s twice as […more…]

Mailbag July 2016 overview of PaPirus Zero, Displayotron Hat, Wombat board, PiOT relay board, PiUPS+, Motozero, Zeroview

 Electronics, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  25 Responses »
Jul 082016
 
Mailbag July 2016 overview of PaPirus Zero, Displayotron Hat, Wombat board, PiOT relay board, PiUPS+, Motozero, Zeroview

This time last year I did a “mailbag” video which was well received. So, with the review box filling up, I thought I’d do another. This time I’m covering seven products. I was going to do a G+ poll so you can tell me which one is the most interesting to you, but their surveys are limited to 5 options and I need 7. So I’ve chosen to use a different survey mechanism. I hope it works out. There’s a list of products with links beneath the video and poll. Since this is mostly a […more…]

Make A Full HD 15.6 inch Screen for $32 for your Raspberry Pi, DSLR or Video Camera

 Electronics  47 Responses »
Jun 162016
 
Make A Full HD 15.6 inch Screen for $32 for your Raspberry Pi, DSLR or Video Camera

My Dell Studio 1557 laptop died some time back in early 2014. It started conking out a few months earlier, but I managed to “heat-gun” the GPU into submission and it worked for a few more months. My wife had an identical machine, bought at the same time, which lasted a year longer. So we had these two dead Dells with lovely, flawless 15.6 inch full HD, low-power screens in the loft, waiting to be targeted for termination. I’d wondered for a while about getting a driver board and seeing if I could re-use them. […more…]

RasPiO Analog Zero – an 8-channel zero-sized board for Raspberry Pi

 Electronics, python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware  7 Responses »
May 242016
 
RasPiO Analog Zero - an 8-channel zero-sized board for Raspberry Pi

Exciting news today. I’ve just launched a new KickStarter project for a Pi Zero sized analog board. I’ve called it the RasPiO Analog Zero. It works with GPIO Zero and is very easy to use. Here’s what it looks like… …and here’s the KickStarter video showing some of the things you could use it for… If you like the look of it, please come and back us on KickStarter.

Central Heating Furnace Monitoring and Control with RasPiO Duino and Raspberry Pi

 Electronics, interfacing, Raspberry Pi Hardware, RasPiO Duino  23 Responses »
Apr 152016
 
Central Heating Furnace Monitoring and Control with RasPiO Duino and Raspberry Pi

We went to Poland for the Easter holiday. When we got there the house was really cold (6°C), having been vacant for several months. We’ve got a fairly substantial solid-fuel furnace in the basement and a large room full of coal to burn. We have a gas boiler too, but we want to get rid of the coal to repurpose the space it occupies. Burning it is the most logical solution, but it involves some work. But I’ve tried to make it a bit more fun. The furnace is an interesting beast. It’s taken me […more…]

How Much Power Does Raspberry Pi3B Use? How Fast Is It Compared To Pi2B?

 Electronics, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  15 Responses »
Mar 032016
 
How Much Power Does Raspberry Pi3B Use? How Fast Is It Compared To Pi2B?

The Raspberry Pi 3, launched this week, is more powerful than the Pi2. It also requires a bit more electrical power if you’re going to be hammering those four A53 CPU cores. How much more? The recommended PSU is 5.1V, 2.5A, which is 0.5A higher than for previous Pis. That doesn’t mean the Pi itself needs that much, but with four USB ports onboard, the PSU has to cater for power-hungry USB devices as well. I usually publish some power measurements each time a new Pi is released. But this time I learnt something new […more…]

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Using MCP3008 to measure temperature with GPIO Zero and RasPiO Pro Hat

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, python programming  18 Responses »
Feb 032016
 
Using MCP3008 to measure temperature with GPIO Zero and RasPiO Pro Hat

In the previous article I showed you the GPIO Zero Experimenter’s Kit I put together to go with the RasPiO® Pro Hat. Today I’m going to give a quick overview of how to use the MCP3008 analogue to digital converter to read the TMP-36 temperature sensor. This gives us a temperature reading (in °C) that we can use to make “decisions” in our Python program. In our case, we’re going to switch on a red LED when the temperature is 24 °C or greater. But there are all sorts of other things you could do, […more…]

GPIO Zero Experimenter’s Kit and RasPiO Pro Hat

 Electronics, Input and Output, Raspberry Pi Hardware  3 Responses »
Jan 282016
 
GPIO Zero Experimenter's Kit and RasPiO Pro Hat

On Tuesday I had a funny thing happen. I was testing an analogue to digital converter (ADC) chip – the MCP3008 – to see how well it worked on the RasPiO® Pro Hat. I had it all wired up, and powered up the Pi, typed a few lines of GPIO Zero code, and… It worked, but not quite how I thought it should. Instead of giving a value of 1.0 for 3V3 and 0 for 0V it was giving 0.67 for 3V3. I left it running and went for lunch. During lunch the ‘lights went […more…]

RasPiO Pro Hat – Putting Pi Ports in Perfect Positions for Productive Play

 Electronics, Product Launch, python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware  18 Responses »
Jan 152016
 
RasPiO Pro Hat - Putting Pi Ports in Perfect Positions for Productive Play

Today I launched the RasPiO Pro Hat on Kickstarter. It’s a Raspberry Pi Hat for GPIO tinkering (it goes perfectly with GPIO Zero). It arranges the GPIO ports in numerical order around a mini-breadboard, which, to my knowledge, has not been done before. It also replaces the RasPiO Breakout Pro (now end of life) because it protects all the ports from over-current and over/under-voltage as well. It should prove a very useful board for GPIO tinkering and education. Have a look at the video and pop on over to the RasPiO Pro Hat campaign page […more…]

Always Test Everything – Twitter App Update

 Electronics, python programming, raspberry pi  7 Responses »
Jan 072016
 
Always Test Everything - Twitter App Update

I’m a firm believer that you should always test things in advance. It helps avoid unexpected last-minute panics when things don’t work as you expected them to. On Friday I’m going to pick a winner from my twitter followers using the twitter app script I wrote back in October 2013. My Joey from @gooligumelec just arrived. :) I have a spare I will give to a randomly selected follower on Friday. pic.twitter.com/yGtwATYXng — RasPi.TV (@RasPiTV) January 5, 2016 It Still Works, But… Since I had no idea where the SD card with that old Raspbian […more…]

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